Parliament passes historic Land Acquisition Bill

The path-breaking Land Acquisition Bill was on Thursday one step short of becoming a law with Parliament giving its approval to it.

Lok Sabha passed the amended version of the legislation, which seeks to provide fair and just compensation to farmers and to those who lose livelihood on account of acquisition.

The bill, which was earlier passed by Lok Sabha last week, went through some amendments during its passage in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The historic legislation will now be sent to President Pranab Mukherjee for his assent.

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh moved in the Lok Sabha the new amendments to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2012, which were incorporated by Upper House.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath requested the House to pass the Bill without any discussion as the legislation had already been discussed in detail earlier. The House agreed to the request.

On Wednesday, in the Rajya Sabha the government had moved an official amendment as a result of Bharatiya Janata Party’s suggestions that retrospective and social impact assessment clauses should not be applied for acquisition of land for ongoing irrigation projects.

The government also moved the amendment to specify that either compensation or rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) will be given to farmers whose land is acquired for irrigation projects.

However, farmers, whose land is acquired for other projects, will get the benefits of both compensation and rehabilitation and resettlement.